


The Legend of the Borg

by Ayngelcat



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-31
Updated: 2012-10-31
Packaged: 2017-11-17 11:10:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/550920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ayngelcat/pseuds/Ayngelcat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for tf_speedriting prompt which invited a story about a transformers equivalent of a human urban legend.</p><p>No warnings</p><p>This is cheating a bit with the prompt, because I don't think there is a human equivalent! Let's just say it's quite possible that it came about in Cybertronian lore.<br/>Arcee despairs at Kup's propensity to tell Daniel alarming tales at bedtime. Anyone who has never heard of the Borg: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Borg But I'm sure most people have!</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Legend of the Borg

"Insecticons! There's a lot more to 'em than just those three yer Dad told y'bout y'see Daniel, the ones that turned up on Earth ...."  
   
The child settled under the blankets, feeling that ripple of excitement that alays accompanied the advent of Kup telling him a bedtime story. "I wanna know!" he said.  
   
Preparing the energon tipples she and Kup always shared after Daniel had gone to bed, Arcee was not so enthusiastic. Kup's stories had been responsible more than once for the boy screaming in the middle of the night, and she still wasn't good at this babysitting thing.  
   
"Used to be billions of 'em, y'see," Kup was saying. "Lots o'different types. An' they lived in a start cluster far, far away. And everything was peaceful y'see - until the spiders came."    
   
Arcee froze. _Oh-oh...._ Oh how she wished he wouldn't. Especially when, they were traversing one of the loneliest reaches of the galaxy, not far from the remote spacestation which controlled access to Quadrant 66. And especially since rumour had it that _Gate_ 66, which was supposed to be sealed - a one way trip for galactic undesirables - wasn't quite as firmly shut as it was meant to be.  
  
"Yes ... they took over, the Arachnids did. So those insectoids, they had to go someplace else ..."  
  
"What were the spiders like?" Daniel caught his breath, his voice high pitched and excited sounding. Arcee imagined his human eyes, wide and shining with a combination of fascination and fear. Any moment now, she suspected, she would have to go in there and put a stop to this.  
  
"The Arachnids? Oh, they ain't so bad," Kup said. "Just large n'hairy with long legs. But you don't have to worry y'self about 'em. They're far away in a place they couldn't never ever get us."  
  
 _He was learning,_ Arcee thought as she poured the drinks. Something of which she was glad, because the empty wasteland which stretched away outside the viewing portal was far from comforting.  
  
"Now - Daniel - the thing y'do have to worry about was what some o'them darned insects _became!"_ Arcee's sensors went back on alert. Surely he wasn't going to tell the kid about ...  
  
"Some of 'em used to live in hives, y'see," Kup said. "Not like those ones on Earth. Vast colonies these others made, like the critters you call _ants -_ though these were human shaped. Lived only t'serve the needs of their collective. Now, the spiders had driven 'em out, an' they found themselves in space. And somehow or other - though foks still don't really know how - those insects got part Cybernetic. Became - _Insecticons._ Then - they did it ..."  
  
"Did what?" came Daiel's squeaky whisper.  
  
"They changed their name!" Said Kup "Didn't wanna be known as insects no more. Or even Insecticons. Not the hivers. They called themselves - the Borg."  
  
Arcee shuddered. She realized the hand holding the cube was shaking. Primus! Just the thought of those mindless cyborgs in those giant cubes gave her the heebiejeebies. It mattered not what particular story of their origins - of which there were several - was true. The stories were the same. Bleak - and final.  
  
Primus alone knew what this would do to Daniel. And they were right near Gate 66 too! The very one through which the legendary Borg were also supposed to have been channelled, safely away from the habitated galaxy.  
  
Next door, it had gone quiet. Perhaps it had been too much for Daniel? Hopefully, Kup had realized this, and he had now shut up.  
  
But no. "Ain't supposed to be none of 'em in the galaxy no more," Kup said. "But don't let 'em tell you that. Just when you're least expectin' it, when your guard's down, out of the shadows they come!" His voice lowered. "Giant metal cubes, hurtling through space. An' when they switch on their communication systems, all you can hear 'em say is .."  
  
That was it. Daniel was not going to hear about the assimilation process. Putting the drinks down, Arcee darted into the room. Daniel peered out from under the bedclothes. "Are they for real?" he asked.  
  
"No Daniel, they're not for real," Arcee said, giving Kup a 'look' before she tucked him in and dimmed the lights. "Now, it's time for you to go to sleep, and for Kup and I to have our grown up time."  
  
...............  
  
"I just think th' kid oughtta know the legend, that's all!" Kup said later as they reclined before the visual screen. "It's part o' glactic history in its own way."  
  
After a few glasses of high grade, Arcee had to admit she was curious, and not so nervous now Kup was here, and less worried about the boy - who seemed to be sleeping soundly.  
  
"Is it legend too, Kup, that no mech ever survived a Borg assimilation?" she asked.  
  
The faint light of space shone through the portal, lighting eerily the contours of the old mech's face. "That? Like the rest, Arcee, just a legend. Whereas the truth ...?"  
  
He smiled, softly. "Now that's another story."


End file.
